Cagewriter

Johny Hendricks coach explains weight mishap

UFC welterweight contender Johny Hendricks reportedly walks around in between fights near 220 pounds (fifty pounds over the 170 pound welterweight limit) but that's alright because he has a personal nutrition/weight coach and a really, really expensive scale that he carries around with him. Well, maybe not.

Despite those pricey assets, Hendricks struggled to make weight Friday for his UFC 171 title fight against Robbie Lawler in Dallas tonight. Hendricks initially missed weight by 1.5 pounds, weighing in at 171.5 pounds, before hitting the mark an hour and a half later.

Hendricks' nutrition coach, former UFC fighter Mike Dolce, explained the problems that went down leading up to weigh-ins for Hendricks to MMA Junkie.

According to nutrition guru Mike Dolce, Johny Hendricks carries around a $1,500 scale that’s calibrated on fight week to exactly match a UFC scale used to keep fighters on weight. Dolce believes that spendy item went a little haywire the night prior to and day of Hendricks’ biggest fight, and he blames Dallas locals for making it that way.

'We had gone to a local gym to do some weight cutting in the hot tub during fight week..Unfortunately, while we were in the hot tub, and the scale was unattended, attendees of the gym were hopping on and off of it. We think the scale might have been damaged because the weight started reading inconsistently.

'At one point, he was 171.8 [pounds] before he went into the bathtub, and we did a 20-minute in the bathtub, where we’ll lose [sixth-tenths of a pound] to a pound in that time...I’m sitting with him, and he’s sweating profusely. We go back and we step on, and it says he gained [two-tenths of an ounce] in that session. That was when he said, ‘[Expletive]. This scale is off.’ That was probably going to be our last one or two sessions of the day.'

Dolce said Hendricks was 174 pounds on that Thursday night at the local gym. He said the scale, a Tanita brand device which the fighter 'travels the world with in a very secure lockbox,' was working fine earlier today when Hendricks checked his weight. But as the day progressed, he said, its readings grew more inconsistent. To complicate matters, Dolce said, the entire weight-cutting process was delayed so Hendricks could attend a 2 p.m. 'medical meeting' that changed their planned schedule.

Yeah, so, Hendricks' team spent over a grand on a scale, carry it in under lock and key while traveling around the world with it, but once they took it out, they paid such little mind to it that random gym-goers were able to jump up and down on it and break it? We're guessing that next time, they'll pay better attention to that investment.

Mishaps or none, the heavy Hendricks clearly suffered to make weight this time around, as evidenced by his uncontrollable shaking while on the scale Friday. It is impossible to know for certain how that struggle may or may not affect his health and endurance during the fight tonight against Lawler.

Hendricks has not missed weight in the past and appeared to have excellent conditioning throughout his entire five-round fight against Georges St. Pierre. Do you think Hendricks will have recovered by main event time tonight at UFC 171?